Why We Value King Lear? (1 Viewer)

[LilSmacko]

For an assessment I need to discuss why we value King Lear. I am struggling to come up with anything and would appreciate some help. As everyone is going to need this I thought we could all just contribute to this thread, hopefully in no time we should be able to have a good bank of varied reasons as to why we value Lear.

Though I need help it wouldn't be very fair if I didn't start it off.

So far all I have is:
The themes of Greed, Family Conflict and Lack of Understanding (Both Self and of Others) are all major in the play and are still very relevent to us today. Therby from this text we are able to learn way to deal with them and the consequences of not doing so.

So help a brother out and hopefully we can have a great selection of ideas by the trials (though before Friday would be better...stupid assessment)

 

[ballerinabarbie]

you're doing well to get that the main themes are still relevant today... that would be what i would base my argument on

considering that the main idea of studying king lear is to study different interpretations - maybe it would be easier to look at a couple of interpretations and then pick out why they would be valued today (that way you can also relate to particular productions or interpretations)

even think of simple things such as we value the text because of its entertainment value

 

[malkin86]

Pretend you empathise with the characters - say what you see them as.

 

[iambored]

it depends on your questions but i would use the themes you have said as a basis and show how they have been shown through different interpretations, showing how the interpretations relate to the time they were made in

 

[ujuphleg]

its important in a Lear response always to mention
1) interpretations and
2) specific scenes in reference.

you're doing well saying that its still relevant today, because the themes are. You can continue by saying that because it is still relevant, people still continue to take Lear and interpret it.

the specific scene thing is because the module is Critical Study of Texts and so many people in my year got slaughtered at half-yearlies, really good students, but they failed to mention specific scenes and specific interpretations and therefore cost them marks big time. Maybe its just my school but from what I understand, its an HSC thing too...

hope this helps.

 

[Persephone87]

That the central themes of ingratitude, betrayal, shift in power are still applicable to our modern society as they were in the contexts of Shakespearean England and pre-Christian Britain, as they are human issues, and are translatable into modern genres such as film.
Perhaps comment on its ability to still attract audiences to theatre, that it is essentially something to enjoy seeing.
Perhaps comment on the religious allegory that it contains.

 

[Barb]

arrogance, fear, loss of control over the surrounding environment and people, how people interact with one another and with nature (yes, i'm sad to say that it does tie in with In The Wild, a tragedy indeed), and the perception of kindness as the only redeeming feature of humanity. it is a play about people and whether or not life can have meaning.

 

[leikWHOA]

Just a question.

<i>religious allegory that it contains.</i>

What does that mean?